Actually, it was. Was also more respected in SciFi circles, which is one reason why Harlan Ellison was a consultant on every episode.

B5's popularity is the sole reason you got the Dominion War in DS9. Berman wanted to turn DS9 into a serial with a big war to copy B5's five-year Shadow War story arc.

Gotta disagree there. I think Berman was opposed to every aspect of serialization outside of cliffhangers. I think the retake the station part of ds9 was supposed to run for a helluva lot longer than the half dozen shows it does, but the creatives couldn't get approval to go further.